Posted on 01/06/2009 11:52:26 AM PST by BGHater
President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.
Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.
When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment.
The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama, who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice, the sources said. Gupta later spoke with Tom Daschle, Obama's White House health czar and nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, and other advisers to the president-elect.
The Michigan-born son of Indian and Pakistani parents, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. His appointment would give the administration a prominent official of Southwest Asian descent and a skilled television spokesman.
Gupta, who hosts "House Call" on CNN, has discussed the job offer with his bosses at CBS and CNN to make sure he could be released from his contractual obligations, the sources said.
His role as journalist and physician have sometimes overlapped. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, Gupta was embedded with a Navy unit called Devil Docs and, while covering its mission, performed brain surgery five times, the first of which was on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Wow. He’s even paying back CNN. I nominate Larry King for press secretary...
Other than Clinton is this clown appointing any white folks to his cabinet?
America Idle.
Can't stand B.O. This is the only pick he has made that hasn't caused me to retreat to the bathroom to worship the porcelain goddess.
My first instinct was to laugh but I think now I am going to cry. This man knows nobody and nothing. It is so pathetic.
Seems like you have actually learned about the guys credentials, rather than having a knee-jerk anti-everything-0bama reaction. Yeah, he sounds at least as qualified as Joycelyn Elders was.
I wonder if Vinod Gupta is his father. There are a lot of Clinton connections there.
Thanks, Happy New Yrear!
The guy is an accomplished neurosurgeon. Why is he such a bad choice?
“Just when you think you’ve seen it all....”
Who next, Dr. Phil for “mental health czar?”
Oprah for health and Fitness?
I agree. Gupta is a heart surgeon, isn’t he.
He’s travelled all over the war zone and even operated while on those travels. His reporting is about health and appears non-partisan.
The Surgeon Genl is a figurehead post only. Someone so high profile would be good.
I approve.
Phew, at least a couple people actually read the article, and realize this is probably 0bama’s best pick to date.
No. Gupta is a Smith or Jones in India.
Gupta is asurgeon and has operated on his travels all over the war zones.
What’s wrong with him. His stuff on TV is very very good.
Good choice.
Maybe folks don't take the job seriously because C. Everett Koop was such a goofball. Why is Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson, M.D only the "acting" SO?
No, but you’re wrong there. How do you think he got the journalism job? He’s already been to DC and worked for Clinton—just another retread!!
It’s pop culture, folks. Nothing more.
“Who next, Dr. Phil for “mental health czar?””
Dr. Gupta makes Dr. Phil look like 3rd world medicine man. This is a good choice, or at the very least, Dr. Gupta’s career as a successful and bright neurosurgeon is well documented.
Plenty of Obama picks to curse, but this isn’t one of them.
Not the same thing. Gupta is the real thing. A good choice.
Not to worry, though, I can still be relied upon to have an anti-most-0bama reaction, if not anti-everything.
:)
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